Unofficial 2019 D3 XC Thread (Official)

111th

Power Rankings wrote:

1. NCC

2. Wartburg

3. Wash U.

4. Williams

5. Hopkins

6. Otterbein

7. U. Chicago

8. Calvin

9. MIT

10. SUNY Geneseo

Sry West region jk nope

As much as it pains me to say it, I think Williams is a legit title contender.

Peter hail wrote:

As much as it pains me to say it, I think Williams is a legit title contender.

your evidence?

Being tied with north central for the number 1 spot on the national rankings...

4V4 wrote:

Being tied with north central for the number 1 spot on the national rankings...

That's kind of thin reasoning if you ask me. You are placing a lot of confidence in a jump in a poll. The text that was published with the poll said that Williams move was a result of coaches being impressed with their recent meets. Well, most recently at Keene Invitational, Williams ran their B team and beat a weak line-up. In the meet prior to that, Williams beat just 3 ranked teams and those teams, I believe, were ranked somewhere between 15-20?

Contrast that with NCC winnng both the Silver (40 teams) and Blue Races at Pre-Nationals (Louisville Classic) and beat 9 of the top 20 ranked teams? NCC's B team beat 57 teams in the blue race with three runners going sub-25. I keep looking at Williams numbers and line-up and I don't see the number 1 ranking. I'm willing to be educated but I just don't get it. Is running 6ks for most of your season when Nationals is 8K, some kind of secret elixir, like raining at altitude?

WashU seems to me to be the most under-rated team right now. They are a confident, experienced team with good team chemistry and a great coach. WashU like NCC is good at peaking for Nationals. At a quick glance, SUNY-Geneseo look like giant killers to me and next most the most likely pretenders to the throne after NCC.

1. NCC

2. SUNY-Geneseo

3. WashU

4. Wartburg

6. Carnegie Mellon

7. Williams

8. Johns Hopkins

9. Otterbein

10. Claremont Mudd-Scripps

Geneseo was given a gift. If Mideast didn’t keep Carnegie Mellon in front of Hopkins Geneseo would be 8-10 at best. Hopkins deserves to be 4/5 after their PreNats race. CMU deserves to be 12th. Paul Short was historically fast. Just goes to show the people running these polls are not the most objective nor do they do their homework. Look for Hopkins to crush Geneseo at Rowan next weekend.

NCC and Williams will be a good race, but I see Pomona Pitzer and Wartburg possibly spoiling things. There’s a couple other teams out there not at full strength yet that can start to emerge as the season goes on too, Wash U is one.

sophomores all around the eastern seabord saying paul short was fast because they only know it from last year.

also, who cares what NCC (or any other team) did in a secondary race. sure, it's good for the future, but you can only run 7 at natties.

reiutowirewi wrote:

sophomores all around the eastern seabord saying paul short was fast because they only know it from last year.

also, who cares what NCC (or any other team) did in a secondary race. sure, it's good for the future, but you can only run 7 at natties.

*seaboard

If you're basing Geneseo's ranking off of their Paul Short results, it's worth noting that Paul Short has never been an 8k, and the times run on that course almost never get replicated by the people who run them. Every runner on that Geneseo team ran a PR in the 8k that day. That isn't a coincidence. I'm a fan of Geneseo, but currently they're more of a 7-8 team, and I can pretty much guarantee no podium for them this year. That being said it looks like the bulk of their top-7 (with the exception of McAneny , who is their strong #1) is set to come back next year, where they'll probably contend for the podium.

need to see results to believe it wrote:

Peter hail wrote:

As much as it pains me to say it, I think Williams is a legit title contender.

your evidence?

I think it's pretty clear if you look at the Louisville and Purple Valley results. I know it's not a perfect comparison, my point is simply to show Williams is in the same ballpark with North Central.

Jacob Davis of RPI was 2nd at PV and 12th at Louisville. Williams #1 Aidan Ryan beat him by 24sec at PV. A similar gap at Louisville puts Ryan in the top 3.

Williams #2 McGovern lost to Davis by 4sec and beat Andrew Mah of MIT (10th at Louisville) by 4sec.

Williams #3 Marshall lost to Kleiman of MIT (20th at Louisville) by 1sec at PVC.

Williams #4 Gannon lost to Kleiman by 3sec and beat Falasco of RPI (22nd at Louisville) by 7sec.

Williams #5 Cox lost to Falasco by 3sec.

So if Williams goes 3-11-22-25-30 for 91 points at Louisville, that puts them awfully close to North Central. I know North Central had some guys in the other race run quicker, so their 85 points would be bumped down some, but this is also with Ryan Cox who was 6th at NCAA's last year as Williams' 5th guy back in 30th. He's coming back from injury and if he gets back to being a top 25 guy by Nationals they'll have a legitimate shot at it.

Let's be clear, Pamona Pitzer is not doing anything.

Next.

Yes, you run 7 at nationals and it will be the best 7 on the team. Does that mean that NCC will just take those from the Blue race and put them in with the others at nationals? No, but they very well could make a good mix. A great part of being on a team like that is that ANYONE (unless you have a stand-out stud) can be in any position 1-7 on any given day.

Williams and NCC are tied for #1. Rightfully so? No. These ties (in my opinion) are to stir the pot and make D3 a little more exciting. We saw what happened when Geneseo and NCC were tied during the season. They got their doors blown off by the biggest margin of victory. Ever.

There's too much weight thrown onto these USTFCCA (and FloTrack) rankings. If anyone has a real shot, it's probably Wartburg. Those guys have a winning mentality and are running REALLY well.

What's going to be great about this season is that these teams in the top 5 (RIP LAX) are all very closely equipped. Oshkosh b'gosh is going to be a very telling race (as I believe NCC, WashU, and Warburg will all be there - correct me if I'm wrong). Each team has a good front runner and a decent 2/3 close behind. It will absolutely come down to everyone's 4 & 5 runners (duh) come nationals.

Well said.

My prediction? closest nationals ever. Any of the top 5 (with the exception of williams and the addition of Johns Hopkins) could win.

There’s more teams in the mix then just the top 5. They don’t hand trophies out on 10/5.

Train D wrote:

There’s more teams in the mix then just the top 5. They don’t hand trophies out on 10/5.

ok RPI

hot singles in your town wrote:

Train D wrote:

There’s more teams in the mix then just the top 5. They don’t hand trophies out on 10/5.

ok RPI

Can't be RPI, that grammar is too poor. Going to guess LAX.

PlankandSimple wrote:

hot singles in your town wrote:

ok RPI

Can't be RPI, that grammar is too poor. Going to guess LAX.

i love that the ncc guy is talking trash about college academics. also, it's RPI. you dont have to be able to read to get in. just need to count.

How will the recent news regarding the INEOS 1:59 challenge affect the race for the DIII team title?

#INEOS159

The entirety of D3 goes home DEVASTATED once they learn that they can't keep up with Kipchoges marathon pace for more than 3 kilometers.